Friday, August 17, 2007

Day 10 - 17 Aug 2007

We woke to a beautiful day today. Our hosts made us a wonderful breakfast at the B&B, and advised us that they just got power lines run past their place last March, but the lines spoiled their view of the mountains. But, their power expense averaged $1,000 per month last year using their two generators to power their large home and two cabins. I won't complain to loud about our electric bill in the future.

We hit the highway at 8:30am to a sunny, cloudless, beautiful day. Before long, we had our jackets off and rode all the way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (almost 500 miles) without them. We spent 10 1/2 hours in the saddle today, but we did have bad roads in Canada, and we did make more stops than usual for photos.

Crossing the border was once again a breeze - my 100 watt smile seems to be paying dividends thus far. ;-)

IMMEDIATELY after crossing the border, the roads were terrible. Here is a short education on the difference between Alaskan roads and Yukon roads: in Alaska, we can travel 60 mph through their "loose gravel" areas..........in Yukon, we have to slow down to 15mph to drive through their "loose gravel" areas. Very time consuming and hard on the knuckles.

Today, Butch saw both a moose and an eagle. That boy has eyes like a hawk! I couldn't see anything due to the tears in my eyes. While we were crossing a "loose gravel" area at 15 mph, an 18-wheeler coming from the opposite direction at 75mph through a boulder that struck me square on the nose. I was looking through two waterfalls for about 27 miles, and missed the eagle and moose.

We probably had our best ride thus far on this little adventure. Warm temps, blue sky, and very little traffic. While we both regretted having to leave the beautiful state of Alaska, it was good to be on the road heading back home to our lovely brides. My bride even e-mailed me today and said " Hey, enjoy yourself on this little adventure-take your time and bring back some good photos.........Winston and Libby and I are fine."
Hmmmm........now I'm worried! I wonder if we pushed the envelope and rode day and night if we could be in Everett in two days. ;-)

My brother is much smarter than I am...... and a much, much, better person. Plus he has good eyes. So what I am about to say is not to mock him in any way. I wouldn't do that. But he has cracked me up on this entire trip with his
insistence to always moving to fast. Our friends the Nelson's, and Jeannine, will concur with me and understand what I am talking about when I say that Butch is ALWAYS in a hurry. Butch drives Mary Nelson crazy when we go scuba diving together because he is always in so much of a hurry. Case in point: this morning, Butch takes his shower first. Within 30 seconds, he comes back to the room bare-butt naked to get his bath towel that he forgot. I have timed him in the bathroom in the mornings- 3 minutes and 45 seconds consistently. I followed after him into the bathroom, and there were his vitamin pills sitting on the counter, never to be seen by Butch again. He is constantly miss-placing items, which just cracks me up! Today, we stopped at Tok, Alaska for fuel and a soda. Tok is the highest latitude that either one of us has ever been on this earth, so we took a break across the street at the Visitors Center (which placed us at an even higher latitude!). We are outside, I'm sipping on my soda, and I look over at Butch and he is putting his helmet on-he's ready to go! Then he asked me "Have you seen my sunglasses?" "Ah, no I haven't Butch". "I wonder where they could be, he says." I said, "maybe you left them in the building". So he says yea, I probably did, and takes off his helmet. Yup, you guessed it, his shades were still on the top of his head! At this point, I had tears running down my face and soda coming out of my nose. He then looks and points at me and says," If you put this on the blog, I'm going to have to hurt you." That comment did two things: made me laugh even harder, and committed me into putting it into the blog tonight.
Whenever I would get too bored, I would think about my brother being in too much of a hurry, and I would start laughing all over again. Maybe you just had to be there. ;-)

Things we learned today:

1. We saw only 1/10th of 1% of Alaska, and yet it was so stunning with beauty that we would love to come back again with our lovely brides.

2. The Al-Can highway from the border to the other side of Destruction Bay in Canada sucks.

3. Trucks coming at you at 75mph throw boulders at anyone on motorcycles.

4. It is much better to ride in a t-shirt than a heavy jacket.

5. Butch has a new, quote, theme song that goes like this: " Rollin', rollin', rollin', O my butt is swollen, keep these engines rollin', raw hide!" Butch says that he sings this as loud as he can while rollin' down the highway. My bro is funny-he just keeps me laughing all the time!

6. Butch rates the pain as, and I again quote, "somewhere between unbearable and unbelievable!"

7. Butch is a funny man, and I love him for his humor also.

8. We have been blessed on this little adventure.

Butch & Jim

3 comments:

george & clarine review said...

I am glad you fellows mastered this adventure. I am envious, but I am too old and decrepit to accomplish any such things any more. I used to do some pretty daring hiking in slot canyons though.

Peless Family said...

This by far has been the most hilarious blog you posted. I laughed continously from start to finish. After spending three days with you two, I can clearly picture each of these fine occurences. And you thought you had adventure on the way up here. But as far as having seen 1% of what Alaska has to offer, that is the truest statement yet.

Unknown said...

I've been following the blogs and pictures. Both have been very entertaining. Two things amaze me from this last blog; 1)that Butch's butt can get sore with as much natural padding as he has. and 2)that he can actually find sunglasses that will accomadate that melon of his! Seriously though I really envy you guys. Ah retirement, only 23 yrs to go!!
--T Box